Sunday, June 4, 2017

7C-7 Duct Tape Hammock

The duct tape hammock. A colored lattice of adhesive taping for the objective of relaxative use. Yes; it worked. And no; not that kind of laxative. Our hammock was inspired and based off of the article by Lance Akiyama from Make. It’s designed with crystalline-diamond and rainbow duct tape hues, double-reinforced with uv-resistant gorilla tape, and when tethered by suitable counterweights, our hammock can hold over 150 pounds.

Photo by Sam Hill

We faced many challenges throughout the making process. We toiled with the challenge of unsticking already folded duct tape, we found a solution in cutting out the ruined, folded tape. However, this solution changed the coloring scheme of the duct tape because we did not have enough colored tape. You can see this in the photo above. Another challenge was creating our hammock under the constraints we were given; limited resources and limited time. And you might be thinking; why meddle in the tedious process of making a 40$ hammock yourself when you might easily buy one? For the pride of making.

And what have we learned from all this? We learned how it is nearly impossible to unstick two pieces of duct tape adhesive. We also learned the valuable process of deductive reasoning. The next step to do is to make it again, on a larger scale. Create a duct tape hammock that can hang from giant redwood trees 50 feet above the ground. If you are energetic enough to try out this project, then make sure you have backup materials, and to be very cautious. One mishap can lead to hours of tedious extra work. And always remember-if you can buy something; don’t buy it. Make it.